• by January 30, 2001

Ty Levine, senior director of marketing for RealCities.com, a regional news portal said "we realized 10 or 15 years ago that this new generation would not be waking up with a cup of coffee and sitting down to read the newspaper like their parents did."

A recent release by International Demographics, Inc., through their syndicated survey by The Media Audit, shows that newspapers are attracting to their web sites an audience which complements their traditional/print subscriber base.

Bob Jordan, co-chairman of the media rating service, points out that in the most recent survey, daily newspaper web sites are out performing all other local media in 51 of 81 markets covered.

For area adults visiting the site in a 30-day period, as a percent of the total market population, the leading newspaper web sites are:

- Washington (DC) 32.8%

- Austin (Texas) American-Statesman 25.5

- Raleigh (North Carolina) News & Observer 20.7

- Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer 21.0

- Sacramento (California) Bee 15.3

Among the top 25 web sites, when measured by penetration of their local market or SMSA, only five newspapers appear on both lists:

- Washington Post, 32.8%

- Minneapolis Star Tribune 20.0

- Boston Globe 17.2

- Houston Chronicle 15.4

- San Diego Union-Tribune 14.6

More than 90% of the country's 1400+ daily newspapers have web sites and the audience attracted to the newspaper web sites is demographically different from the subscribers to the traditional newspapers. "The web audience," says Jordan, "is predominantly 18 to 44-year-olds in comparison to the traditional newspaper subscriber base which is heaviest among those over 45.

On the web, newspapers are attracting the audience segment they have found so difficult to attract to their print products: college educated 21 - 34 year-olds with significant discretionary income and bright financial futures.

Find out more at www.themediaaudit.com.